1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to burner heads and more specifically to such heads utilized in apparatus for the combustion of combustible waste gas from refineries and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common practice to use flare gas burners to burn waste gas from refineries and the like. One commonly used flare gas burner for this purpose includes a central gas pipe, surrounded by a large insulated cylinder containing burner heads therein which supply waste combustible gas for burning. The major objection to the available burner heads is that they concentrate gas being burned in one central area with inadequate surface area for mixing of air for efficient combustion with the gas. The surface area of the flare has a great effect upon diffusion of the gas and air, and this was not taken into account with many of the previously available burner heads. Waste gas diffusion is also dependent upon the Reynolds number, that is to say--whether it is a laminar or turbulent type of mixing.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,971,605 to Frost et al. shows a method and apparatus for flaring combustible gaseous materials but the burner heads shown therein do not provide for sufficient admixture of air with gas for complete smokeless combustion.
While over the years, combustion can and has been inproved by using different types of burner heads, the burner heads heretofore and now employed are expensive and difficult to construct, do not provide for adequate mixing of air with the gas to be burned and often have maintenance problems aggravated by the variety of types of waste gas they are called upon to burn.